Since January when the announcement was made about Facebook’s change to their algorithm, we’ve been testing what we’ve done in the past, as well as some of our new adjustments. In some cases, with no engagement what so ever, we didn’t see any changes.

Those where we moved attention to GYBO posts and more engaging posts but less of them on Facebook, we noticed an uptick on organic reach on Google and about the same result on Facebook.

What does all this mean for those who engage with their clients through social channels? Keep doing what you’ve done in the past and keep an eye on your post reach. If you begin to see a decline, pull back on the amount of general posts and put a focus on engaged posts, even if you only do one or two a week.

What is a general post?

A general post is information on your products or services. It can also be a post highlighting an event you are having, changes in your hours, or announcements on vacation. These are all general posts as they may get a like or two but for the most part, people will see your post and won’t engage.

What is an engaged post?

Engaged posts gets your audience involved with the content in the post. It could be a post about your product but ask a question to engage the audience to answer. Like this, “We’ve been finding that people are using our widget like this. Are you using it that way or finding better solutions for it?” Another general post that could easily become an engaged post is the mention of vacation. Imagine the suggestions you’d get for vacation ideas if you admit you’re a workaholic and have no clue where to go for vacation. You see, engaged posts, if properly managed, can have a life span of two to three days or even more.

Should you advertise?

We’ve had tremendous success with Facebook Boosts and mixed results with Facebook Sponsored Ads.

The key to ads is to be very specific with your audience. Don’t waste your marketing investment on general ads unless you have a product that everyone can use. Be focused especially if you have a limited budget.

So what’s the take away from all of this?

Check your data and compare pre-January 2018 data to today. If there is no change, continue with what you are doing. If you notice a change, shift to less general posts and focus on engaging posts. Make sure to include GYBO Posts focusing on keywords.

Next month’s column will focus on Alignable. I have several business owners who have asked me, “What’s Alignable.” More to come on that subject